1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the purchase of goods and services and, more particularly, to payment for goods and services using a prepaid purchase account.
2. The Relevant Technology
At the majority of retail locations that sell petroleum, food, general merchandise, and other consumer products and services, a variety of traditional forms of payment are accepted, including cash, check, credit card, and debit card payment. Unfortunately, there are security and handling costs, fees, charges, and losses associated with each of these forms of payment.
For example, where cash is an accepted form of payment, associated costs and losses normally include the cost of the cashier being hired, trained, and supervised; accepting cash; giving back change (including too much change); pocketing money; and end-of-shift or other audits. In addition, attendants who accept cash may worry about cash shortages and may operate under the threat of being fired for such shortages.
Additional costs result from security. Such costs include, for example, capital outlays for safes and related security equipment, and costs for counting money, placing funds in the safe, theft losses (either in store or en route to a deposit), preparing deposit-slips, traveling to the bank, and bank service charges.
Credit card and debit card payments also include various similar and other costs. For instance, costs to the vendor include cashier costs, capital outlays for equipment and software, chargeback fees, card network fees, and rejected or bad card (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, etc.) fees.
The acceptance of checks includes many similar costs and fees as are associated with cash, as well as additional costs and fees. For instance, additional fees associated with accepting checks include third party check verification and guarantee fees, losses due to insufficient funds, collection costs (administrative, managerial and legal), cost of attendants accepting checks, inconvenience of slow lines due to customers preparing checks at the checkout stand, and adding check amounts for deposit slips. E-checks, however, are not subject to at least some of the costs and losses associated with in-store handling; however, the risks of losses due to insufficient funds and third party verification and guarantee fees still apply.
To reduce some of the costs normally associated with the checkout process, automated checkout systems may be employed. In this manner, automated checkout systems may reduce costs such as labor costs and potentially speed up the checkout process. However, cash outlays for cash acceptor machines at each checkout location, maintenance costs on these machines, the cost of loading change into the machine, and the usual costs of handling, securing, and banking money remain. Further, the use of traditional checks are not well suited for automated checkout systems, so checks must either be eliminated as an acceptable payment method, or an attendant must be present to accept the check payment. If accepted, the usual costs associated with check payments remain. Further, the fees, software, and equipment costs associated with credit card and debit card acceptance also remain.
When a credit card, debit card, check, or other type of payment is made, an attempt is often made to ensure that the purchaser is authorized to use the payment method. For instance, an attendant may require a government issued or other photo identification to verify the name on the check or credit card is the same as that presenting the card or check for the purchase. Similarly, when a debit card is presented, the user may be required to enter a confidential PIN number for authorization.
In addition, current payment methods are limited to payment at the time of the transaction. Accordingly, such forms of payment are accepted for only one purchase at a time. As a result, the costs associated with accepting cash, checks, and credit/debit cards applies to each individual purchase. As a consequence, costs and fees (e.g. security, handling, transaction, banking, etc.) borne by vendors and retailers for tank-at-a-time fuel purchases and individual food, merchandise, or service purchases paid for at the time of the purchase are greater than would be the associated costs and fees for a single payment sufficient for multiple fill-ups and multiple food, merchandise, or service purchases.
Additionally, merchants have typically not had a means for providing customers with recordkeeping tools to manage and keep automated records of purchases made with more than one form of payment (e.g., cash, checks, credit and debit cards). Depending on the form of payment some recordkeeping devices may be available, such as, for example, bank statements, online banking web sites, and credit card invoices. In addition, some petroleum companies offer credit card and fleet cards that provide recordkeeping services, but require a consumer to make all fuel purchases using the card. Further, merchants are typically charged for this service. However, no single recordkeeping device is available to customers who use multiple forms of payment at different times.
Although in some instances, means have been devised that reduce the cost of accepting traditional forms of payment, merchants pass the remaining costs, fees, charges, and losses on to their customers in the form of higher prices. Accordingly, as a result of present technology, customary payment methods used for fuel and other product or services purchases pass on the costs to the consumer and consumers are required to pay more for products and services than would otherwise be necessary if the costs, fees, charges and losses necessary with traditional payment methods were either reduced or eliminated.
Further, traditional forms of payment do not provide a mechanism for paying for more than one purchase at a time which, if available, could lower costs by spreading fees and costs over multiple purchases. In addition, typical payment mechanisms do not provide consumers with the ability to track purchases, establish budgets, and manage funds in a single, convenient interface for multiple payment methods. Accordingly, what would be advantageous are systems, methods, and computer program products that would further reduce or eliminate the monetary overhead associated with the acceptance of traditional payment methods, allow for the payment of multiple purchases at a time, and/or consolidate purchasing information into a manageable and convenient format for recordkeeping purposes.